4 ms·

Mastodon links are now more common than Twitter/X on HN

35 points by erlend_sh 3y ago

rolph 3y ago
not everyone wants mastodon, so alternative links would be good. forking HN activity over to another board is unseemly, but if its really low quality non informative stuff thats fine.
frfl 3y ago
Doesn't really pass the smell test. I checked on hckrnews.com/, scroll to load posts that reached the front page from now to August 1, ctrl+f "twitter", ctrl+f "mastodon", 14 vs 2 matches. I don't know if there's other domains besides mastodon that I may have missed in this quick test.
- lol768 3y ago
  > ctrl+f "mastodon" Would this necessarily match all links to Mastodon instances?
  - frfl 3y ago
    I updated my comment to acknowledge that. I don't use mastodon or know of all the domains. But at first glance, the assertion doesn't seem to hold. Nor did the poster provide any evidence to support their claim. As far as I can tell, twitter is still alive and well for now.
    - mingus88 3y ago
      It’s objectively not well. Or at least it is nowhere near as ubiquitous as it once was, which is fatal to a social network. The simple act of requiring one to login to view any content has muted it everywhere I once saw Twitter content.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    No, certainly not. Many of the most important instances (and in particular many of those most likely to be linked here) don’t use the word ‘mastodon’ in their domains, and of course there are lots of personal ones.
- 8organicbits 3y ago
  Lots of news about Twitter is not a link to Twitter. Most mastodon domains don't have mastodon in the name.
  - Alupis 3y ago
    I don't see the difference between this and just some joe-random's blog post then. If mastodon posts come from random domains - isn't that like saying "Random Blog Post Links are more common than Twitter/X"? Mastodon probably won't ever reach critical mass like centralized Social apps do, as much as we technies might want it.
    - 8organicbits 3y ago
      A major difference is that mastodon instances federate together, blogs don't. A rapid resurgence in self-operated blogs would also be exciting and newsworthy. > won't ever reach critical mass like centralized Social apps Is that even a goal? I use it because there's interesting people I can interact with there. Market share is not the only measure of success.
      - Alupis 3y ago
        The reason this particular article was submitted was to dig at Twitter/X/Musk, no? > Is that even a goal? The people pushing for Mastodon seem to have been co-opted by the anti-Twitter/Musk crowd. To them, it does appear to be a goal.
        8organicbits 3y ago
        I wouldn't assume that intent and that hasn't been my experience on the platform. There was a visible uptick of Twitter discontent voiced on all platforms (including HN) at several points this year. It's easy to follow accounts that arent fixated on the old.
      - rsynnott 3y ago
        You could I think at one time actually have argued it for blogs; there’s a reason people used to call it the blogosphere, and social-network-esque mechanics (eg linkbacks, which likely inspired quote tweets) were commonly used at one time.
- tredre3 3y ago
  This isn't a good test. You'd need to run a regex against the entire urls, not just domains. (domain pattern)/@(user pattern)/(\d+) But I bet that will accidentally match other things like maybe lemmy or threads or even tiktok? Mastodon links not being distinctive is annoying because on mobile your viewer of choice can't catch urls, the url needs to load in the browser and then you might be suggested to re-open in your app of choice.
  - xethos 3y ago
    In case it's news to you: Firefox on Android can automatically open links in-app, or you can long-press and "Open in App", and select your preferred viewer from there.
8organicbits 3y ago
To echo a comment on the post, the numbers on this would be really interesting to see. The comments are all on bigquery if anyone wants to write a blog post to confirm the trend. https://hoffa.medium.com/hacker-news-on-bigquery-now-with-daily-updates-so-what-are-the-top-domains-963d3c68b2e2 https://hoffa.medium.com/hacker-news-on-bigquery-now-with-da...
MisterBastahrd 3y ago
Twitter doesn't have a ton of people pimping twitter out to anyone who will listen. Those links tend to occur because people actually use twitter.
uptown 3y ago
Twitter essentially broke itself as a useful tool for me having used it primarily through Tweetbot for years. Previously if I was having some issue, I could search for the @username of a company or service and find users sending messages that username from Tweetbot. Now if I search that on their web or X app I can't find any way to show what people are saying "to" that username. Instead I get that username's content or perhaps a reply from them to someone that seems to be stale. So I spend almost no time there anymore, and as-such, no links from there are surfaced to other platforms.
- throwaw1yyy 3y ago
  Twitter is fine. Make an account and look at 1 or 2 ads so you can message the companies you want. You work in tech right? How do you keep the lights on? From people paying to use your software. Look at 1 or 2 ads so the company can stay afloat with lights on and enjoy messaging your companies. You can do all that stuff like look at previous tweets to companies from the twitter search bar. Though I admit it is harder to do on mobile because of screen real estate
rsynnott 3y ago
Given that Twitter links are now virtually useless if you're not logged in, this is perhaps unsurprising. Baffling decision.

35 points by erlend_sh 3y ago

not everyone wants mastodon, so alternative links would be good. forking HN activity over to another board is unseemly, but if its really low quality non informative stuff thats fine.

frfl 3y ago

Doesn't really pass the smell test. I checked on hckrnews.com/, scroll to load posts that reached the front page from now to August 1, ctrl+f "twitter", ctrl+f "mastodon", 14 vs 2 matches. I don't know if there's other domains besides mastodon that I may have missed in this quick test.

lol768 3y ago
> ctrl+f "mastodon" Would this necessarily match all links to Mastodon instances?
- frfl 3y ago
  I updated my comment to acknowledge that. I don't use mastodon or know of all the domains. But at first glance, the assertion doesn't seem to hold. Nor did the poster provide any evidence to support their claim. As far as I can tell, twitter is still alive and well for now.
  - mingus88 3y ago
    It’s objectively not well. Or at least it is nowhere near as ubiquitous as it once was, which is fatal to a social network. The simple act of requiring one to login to view any content has muted it everywhere I once saw Twitter content.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- rsynnott 3y ago
  No, certainly not. Many of the most important instances (and in particular many of those most likely to be linked here) don’t use the word ‘mastodon’ in their domains, and of course there are lots of personal ones.
8organicbits 3y ago
Lots of news about Twitter is not a link to Twitter. Most mastodon domains don't have mastodon in the name.
- Alupis 3y ago
  I don't see the difference between this and just some joe-random's blog post then. If mastodon posts come from random domains - isn't that like saying "Random Blog Post Links are more common than Twitter/X"? Mastodon probably won't ever reach critical mass like centralized Social apps do, as much as we technies might want it.
  - 8organicbits 3y ago
    A major difference is that mastodon instances federate together, blogs don't. A rapid resurgence in self-operated blogs would also be exciting and newsworthy. > won't ever reach critical mass like centralized Social apps Is that even a goal? I use it because there's interesting people I can interact with there. Market share is not the only measure of success.
    - Alupis 3y ago
      The reason this particular article was submitted was to dig at Twitter/X/Musk, no? > Is that even a goal? The people pushing for Mastodon seem to have been co-opted by the anti-Twitter/Musk crowd. To them, it does appear to be a goal.
      - 8organicbits 3y ago
        I wouldn't assume that intent and that hasn't been my experience on the platform. There was a visible uptick of Twitter discontent voiced on all platforms (including HN) at several points this year. It's easy to follow accounts that arent fixated on the old.
    - rsynnott 3y ago
      You could I think at one time actually have argued it for blogs; there’s a reason people used to call it the blogosphere, and social-network-esque mechanics (eg linkbacks, which likely inspired quote tweets) were commonly used at one time.
tredre3 3y ago
This isn't a good test. You'd need to run a regex against the entire urls, not just domains. (domain pattern)/@(user pattern)/(\d+) But I bet that will accidentally match other things like maybe lemmy or threads or even tiktok? Mastodon links not being distinctive is annoying because on mobile your viewer of choice can't catch urls, the url needs to load in the browser and then you might be suggested to re-open in your app of choice.
- xethos 3y ago
  In case it's news to you: Firefox on Android can automatically open links in-app, or you can long-press and "Open in App", and select your preferred viewer from there.

8organicbits 3y ago

To echo a comment on the post, the numbers on this would be really interesting to see. The comments are all on bigquery if anyone wants to write a blog post to confirm the trend. https://hoffa.medium.com/hacker-news-on-bigquery-now-with-daily-updates-so-what-are-the-top-domains-963d3c68b2e2 https://hoffa.medium.com/hacker-news-on-bigquery-now-with-da...

MisterBastahrd 3y ago

Twitter doesn't have a ton of people pimping twitter out to anyone who will listen. Those links tend to occur because people actually use twitter.

uptown 3y ago

Twitter essentially broke itself as a useful tool for me having used it primarily through Tweetbot for years. Previously if I was having some issue, I could search for the @username of a company or service and find users sending messages that username from Tweetbot. Now if I search that on their web or X app I can't find any way to show what people are saying "to" that username. Instead I get that username's content or perhaps a reply from them to someone that seems to be stale. So I spend almost no time there anymore, and as-such, no links from there are surfaced to other platforms.

throwaw1yyy 3y ago
Twitter is fine. Make an account and look at 1 or 2 ads so you can message the companies you want. You work in tech right? How do you keep the lights on? From people paying to use your software. Look at 1 or 2 ads so the company can stay afloat with lights on and enjoy messaging your companies. You can do all that stuff like look at previous tweets to companies from the twitter search bar. Though I admit it is harder to do on mobile because of screen real estate

rsynnott 3y ago

Given that Twitter links are now virtually useless if you're not logged in, this is perhaps unsurprising. Baffling decision.